


Snow Drop

by Bandity



Series: Voltron Whump Week [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Blood, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Hypothermia, head injuries, injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-16
Updated: 2017-08-16
Packaged: 2018-12-16 01:50:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11818695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bandity/pseuds/Bandity
Summary: A storm is raging and Pidge fights to get an injured Lance to safety.





	Snow Drop

**Author's Note:**

> Day 2 of whump week. These are all posted on my tumblr, but I edit them to be a bit better before I post here. My tumblr is under the name banditywrites, if anyone is interesting in reading them before I fix them. 
> 
> Please excuse mistakes. Apparently, I don't sleep anymore.

The storm had come on quickly. Faster than they had thought possible. Lance and Pidge had just been doing a little surveillance on an icy planet, checking out the remnants of a small Galra outpost. Their other team members were surveying the rest of the planet when the storm kicked up out of nowhere and disrupted their communication.

The last thing Shiro said, before the com went out, was to get to their Lions. So in the sudden blizzard, Pidge and Lance made their way back to Green and Blue. Pidge was walking behind Lance, letting him cut a path in the building snow. Their progress was slow. The planet was mostly ice and they had landed the lions amongst the craggy cliffs and fissures that stretched out for several miles before them. They had thought that the icy cliffs provided them with perfect cover in case the Galra decided to show up after all. However, now that they were trekking back with low visibility, it turned out to be a mistake.

“Lance! Turn left!” Pidge shouted through roaring winds. Lance did as he was told. Veering to the side, avoiding a cliff’s sudden drop. Before all her tech went down, she had more or less memorized the path they needed to take. If they kept going this way, they should see the Lions soon.

Any minute now.

Lance suddenly stopped, causing Pidge to bump into his back.

“Pidge?” Lance turned to look at his companion.

“Yeah?”

“Just checking!” Lance shouted back. “Are you alright?” He asked after a brief pause.

“I’m fine! We should keep going!”

“What?”

“Keep going! Lance, keep going!”

“Okay!” Lance turned and continued on his course. The fact of the matter was that their suits had excellent temperature regulation, but after all this time, Lance was starting to feel the cold creeping in. Before he knew it, his toes were beginning to feel numb. He had assumed Pidge would be worst off, because she was so small and didn’t that mean that she didn’t hold in as much body warmth? She was probably starting to feel really, really cold.

Lance was staring out at the white expanse in front of him and he had the oddest sensation come over him. With his feet going numb, he started to feel detached. Everything was blotted out by giant white snowflakes. He couldn’t see any difference between the ground and the air before him. How did Pidge know where they were? Everything looked the same. It was like floating through a loud angry cloud.

Until it wasn’t.

One minute, Pidge was walking with both hands brushing against Lance’s back and the next, there was only air. It was as though he had just vanished. Pidge stretched out her hands in confusion, but there was nothing there. She slowly dropped to her knees and blindly reached out in the snow. He must have just tripped, he had probably just fallen over.

“Lance!” Pidge called when her hands met only snow and ice. “Lance!” She shouted. She scrabbled blindly until the snow fell away and her grasp was met with nothing but empty air. She gasped and fell backwards. Avoiding the sheer drop off that was directly in front of her.

“Lance!” Pidge carefully shuffled forward, finding the edge and peering over the side. _Please don’t let it be far._

Pidge stared down into dark nothingness. It was a sheer, icy drop. A crack in the terrain, only a few meters wide, but stretching across the landscape like a canyon.

“Lance!” She yelled into the abyss. She couldn’t see anything. She activated her helmet, trying to get a read on Lance or the depth of the cliff. It looked bottomless. She couldn't get any proper readings from her tech and she turned it back off in irritation. 

Lance had his propulsion pack, why didn’t he activate it? He must not have even had time to react, he must’ve gotten hurt. Pidge swallowed down her panic. She glanced around, trying to figure out her options. It was then that she saw a hint of green amongst the white to her left.

Her lion, sitting and waiting patiently just ahead. She knew Blue would be there too, waiting for Lance.

Pidge clenched her numb fingers into a fist. She could do this. Just stay calm. The Lions weren’t far, she just needed to get Lance.

“I’m on my way,” Pidge called down into the dark. She stuck one end of her bayard in the ice on the edge of the cliff and pulled out the cord to give herself some slack. She could scale the cliff for several feet that way. Hopefully, it would be enough.

With a deep breath, she threw her shivering legs over the side and began her descent. She had her jetpack. She wasn’t going to fall. She could just jump and activate it, but something about leaping into the unknown darkness unsettled her deeply. So she climbed down, her fingers straining to hold her bayard and her feet scrambling to find purchase.

Her feet slipped and she bodily smacked against the icy wall several times. It wasn’t long before she heard the ice crack above her and her impromptu grappling hook broke from the ice.

Even though her pack ignited with no issues and stopped her descent, she still let out a short scream, in that moment when she was falling through darkness. She ungracefully lowered herself until her feet touched cold ground. She spun in a anxious circle and saw that she had found a large ledge jutting out from the side of the cliff, but this wasn’t even the bottom of this terrible, cold death trap. Lance wasn’t here. It was dark, the only light emitting from Pidge’s own armor. She looked over the side to see nothing, but darkness. Except… there was a faint blue light… just a little further down on her left on another ledge.

“Lance!” Pidge called. “Hold on, I’m coming!” Pidge jumped, not having time to be afraid of the dark anymore. Her pack sputtered to life briefly to ensure a softer landing. As soon as she touched down, she dropped to her knees at Lance’s side.

“Lance! Lance! Can you hear me?” Lance was face down in the snow and she carefully turned him over. Her mind started buzzing with facts about spinal injuries and the dangers of moving someone who was injured, but she couldn’t leave him face down like that. She had to check him over.  

Lance groaned at the movement and Pidge’s heart lifted in relief. However, it dropped again when she got a look at his face. Behind the face shield, Pidge could see that Lance’s face was heavily bruised on one side and there was blood in his hairline.

“Lance?” Pidge’s voice shuddered. She tried to tell herself it was just the cold seeping through, making her voice shake like that. Pidge looked up, gauging the distance back up to the surface and to safety. She could see the swirling white that told her the storm continued to rage. There would still be too much interference, no call for help would make it through.

They were alone.

She could wait out the storm; rely on their armor to keep them from freezing… But how long would it be? How long could they survive it? She couldn’t feel her toes anymore and her fingers were becoming too clumsy. And Lance was obviously hurt, he could be damaged internally. No, waiting wasn’t an option.

Her jetpack wouldn’t give her enough thrust to propel her straight up the cliff side for that long. She certainly wouldn’t be able to make it while carrying Lance.

“Lance?” Pidge gently shook his shoulders, trying to see if he would come back to consciousness. Pidge studied the icy wall above her. Her armor was equipped with two smaller grappling hooks. She could tie Lance to her and then use her bayard to reach the top. But if it didn’t reach, she could be potentially stuck, carrying Lance, with no footholds.

Wait.

She could see the ice jutting out from the wall above her. There were more ledges. Maybe she could just move a little at a time. Pidge couldn't deny that her teeth were chattering almost nonstop now. They needed to move.

She tied a cord around Lance’s middle and hooked it to her armor, just as a precaution. She then very carefully aimed her bayard above the closest ice ledge and fired. When she was sure that it had connected. She began to retract the line. Her jet pack burst to life briefly to propel her the needed distance. Lance flopped to the side. He was a dead weight that seriously dragged her down. She had one arm around his middle, trying to keep him from falling.

She collapsed on the ice ledge in a jumble of limbs. For a terrifying moment, she thought Lance was going to slip off the edge and she clung to him desperately. Luckily, Lance remained safe, though his feet dangled over the side. Heart pounding, Pidge tried to think of a new plan. This was incredibly unsafe. He could slip out of her tied knots. She wasn’t going to be able to make it without dropping him. Frustrated tears pricked the corners of her eyes and she screwed up her face angrily. Crying wouldn’t solve anything. She needed to think. Why was it so hard to think? Her brain felt like it was freezing over.

“Pidge?” Came the bewildered murmur. Startled, Pidge gasped and looked down to see Lance staring at her through half lidded eyes.

“Lance!” Pidge threw her arms around his neck and thanked every lucky star in the universe. Lance mumbled something, but didn’t protest.

“’s cold, Pidge,” Lance slurred.

“I know. I know. But you fell. Do you remember falling?”

“No.” Lance tried to move, to sit up, but when he shifted his weight to his right arm, he collapsed with a gasp.

“Lance! Your arm, you’re hurt! I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Lance forced out through gritted teeth. There were a few minutes of labored breathing as Lance tried to get a handle on his newly realized pain. Lance was lying on his back, just staring up at the icy cliff for a long time until he finally spoke again.

“I fell?”

“Yeah,” Pidge whispered. She had unhooked Lance from her hastily made safety harness, but she still sat close to him.

“You came all the way down here for me, by yourself?” Lance sounded like he couldn’t believe it.

“Of course. Of course I did.”

“That was dangerous.”

“You would have done the same for me.”

Lance slowly blinked and Pidge wondered if his mind was being slowed by the cold as well. Pidge decided to move forward with her plan of escape.

“If we both activate our jetpacks, I can use my bayard to help lift us and we can probably make it.”

“Are you going to carry me, Pidge?”

“If I have to.”

Lance let out a breath that was almost a laugh. They stayed like that on the ice until Pidge felt her backside go numb. Lance must have been losing all feeling in his entire back and shoulders. Maybe he was doing it on purpose. Being numb was probably better than being in pain.

“It’s a long way,” Lance muttered, still staring up at the opening above them. Pidge had been eyeing a ledge that was about halfway up. It looked small, but maybe if they could make it there first, the rest would be easier. It was at that point when they couldn’t wait any longer. Pidge needed to be able to hold her bayard, which meant she needed to have some feeling in her hands. Pidge settled herself under Lance’s uninjured arm and she hastily tied them together again. “Going to drag you down,” Lance commented once they were secured.

“If I don’t do this, I won’t be able to hold on to you. You’re too lanky, Lance.”

Lance hummed in response. Pidge eyed her bayard, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to hold on to it and carry Lance’s weight. She quickly pulled out extra cord from the smaller grappling hook in her armor and tied her wrist to her bayard.

“You’re going to break your wrist,” Lance mumbled. “I can hold it.”

“No, you only have one good arm. I can do it.”

The first time Pidge fired her bayard off, it met only air and it quickly retracted back to her. She swore and tried again. She then felt it connect and stick into the wall. Pidge took a deep breath.

“If we take turns using our packs, we should be able to propel up the cliff. We just need to time it.”

“Time it?”

“Yeah, I will have my pack on for three ticks and then you have yours on for three and we take turns.”

“Wait, what if you count faster than me? We’ll just be dangling from your bayard.”

“I won’t count fast.”

“Yeah, but people count faster if they’re nervous.”

“Okay… What do we do then?”

“We could… sing a song? It would be easier to keep the timing.”

“Sing… a song?”

“Yeah, something easy like, ‘Row Your Boat.’”

“Row…”

“You know it, right?”

“Yeah… but…”

“So you would start. ‘Row, row, row your boat’ and you’d have your pack on and then the next part I would turn mine on for ‘gently down the steam’ and we’d go like that.”

Singing just sounded ridiculous, but Lance was most likely concussed, so if he said it would be easier, than that’s what they would do.

“Okay, ready?”

“Ready.” Lance tightened his grip around Pidge’s shoulders.

Pidge started to retract her bayard and the moment her feet left the ground, she began saying the words through chattering teeth.

“Row, row, row your boat-”

Her jet pack turned off and Lance’s kicked on.

“Gently down the steam-”

“Merrily, merrily, merrily-”

“Life is but a dream.”

“Row, row, row your boat-”

Pidge thought she felt something snap in her wrist.

“Gently down the stream.”

Pidge’s bayard had anchored them to a spot that was above and a little too far to the left of the ledge they had been aiming for. Without hesitation, Lance stretched out his leg and caught the edge with one foot. He had enough tread to pull them over to safer ground. They both started to stumble, but they desperately scrambled to cling to the wall of ice. This ledge was small and they wouldn’t be able to fall without tumbling over the side. For a terrifying moment, Lance clung to Pidge, worried that she was about to slip away.

When it was apparent that they had made it safely, they both let out a shaky breath. Lance still held on tightly as Pidge tried to gauge the rest of the distance.

“Is your arm okay?” Lance asked.

“It’s fine.” She couldn’t really feel it anyway.

They weren’t far from the top now. She could hear the storm howling above them. They only needed to do that process one more time.

She checked to make sure they were still tied together and then she shot her bayard off again. It disappeared over the higher edge and stuck with a solid ‘thunk.’

“Ready?” Pidge asked. She wasn’t even really shivering anymore.

Lance slowly nodded and she wondered if he was dizzy. He certainly looked like he was having a hard time staying upright.

“You can start us off again,” he muttered. Pidge nodded and began to retract the line, lifting them off the ground.

“Row, row, row your boat-”

“Gently down the stream-”

Pidge felt like the roar of the storm was in her ears.

“Merrily, merrily, merrily-”

Her wrist was suddenly not as numb as she thought it was, but she still clung tightly, ignoring the sharp agony.

“Life is but a dream.”

“Row, row, r-row b-boat-”

“Gently down the steam,” Lance near whispered.

“Merrily, merrily, merrily-”

This was taking longer than last time.

“Life is but-” they hit the side of the wall hard and Lance immediately reached up with his good arm and grabbed a hold of the ledge. Using strength that Pidge didn’t think was possible, Lance worked one arm up over the edge and was able to find purchase with his feet to push himself up. Doing so, he dragged Pidge over as well.

It must have hurt so much.

Lance collapsed into the snow and lay gasping. His eyes fluttered shut and Pidge worried that he was going to pass out completely. They were still tied together, stretched out in the snow, all tangled up in each other’s limbs. Pidge was pressed into his chest plate and she worried that it would inhibit his breathing. She brought her hand up to try and free it from the bayard, but the cord had tightened and some of it had slipped beneath the plating on her arm. She couldn’t free her hand. The storm still blustered around them, but Pidge realized the sound in her ear was too much like static.

“H-hello?” Pidge stammered.

“..-ou copy?”

Shiro. It was Shiro. Pidge felt tears sting at the corners of her eyes and she swallowed thickly.

“C-copy.”

“Pidge! Where are you? Is Lance with you?”

Pidge looked up to see that Lance still had his eyes closed.

“Near my lion. Lance is here.” Pidge began trying to shakily untie the cord from around Lance’s chest, but her hands were useless. She couldn’t feel anything and her fingers wouldn’t cooperate at all.

“Are you both alright?”

“Lance is hurt. I can’t- I can’t move him.”

The snow was piled around them. Even if she got Lance in a position to be carried, she wouldn’t be able to get through the snow to her Lion.

“We have an approximate reading on your location. Just sit tight. We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

“Okay.”

A numbness came over her whole body as she stared up at the clouds and watched the snow swirl above them.

At some point she could see a dark shape moving through the sky, growing larger until it filled her vision.

“Shiro…”

It was the last thing she remembered before it all went dark.

* * *

 

“Here.”

“Thank you,” Lance said as he took the offered blanket from Pidge. Once Lance was carefully wrapped up, Pidge plopped down next to him on the couch, wrapped in her own comforter.  She sighed as she felt Lance’s warmth leaking through to her side.

“I never realized…” Lance coughed before continuing again. “I never realized how cold the castle is.”

Pidge hummed and buried herself deeper into her blanket cocoon. The two of them had been out of the pods for two days and, while the pods had saved them, they were still left feeling like they were freezing.

“It’s not a warm experience,” Coran had commented when Lance complained. They had both been given orders to rest after that and Shiro had made sure they had warm drinks, heat packs and as many blankets as they wanted. However, there was still an icy feeling that sat in Pidge’s chest.

“I may never be warm again,” Pidge frowned deeply.

“How’s your wrist?”

“Perfectly fine now. How’s your arm and your head?”

“A lot better.”

“You’re not going to force me into anymore sing alongs are you?”

“I didn’t do that because I had a head injury.” Lance was scowling now.

“You couldn’t even count to three-”

“I did that so you wouldn’t be scared.”

Pidge went still.

She hadn’t realized.

Lance had seen through her false bravado. In that moment when she was trying to take care of him, to save them, Lance had stepped up. He had calmed her down.

Lance had probably saved them both.

“Thank you,” Pidge mumbled. She leaned her head against his shoulder and released a deep breath. Lance then rested his chin atop her head.

“No, thank _you_. You broke your wrist hauling us up that wall.”

Pidge shook her head slightly. This was one situation where Lance was never going to take all the credit.

“We did it together.”

“Yeah,” Lance agreed after a moment.

They sat like that for a long time, reveling in their shared body heat. With a content yawn, Pidge realized she was beginning to feel truly warm again.

**Author's Note:**

> I was just planning on having them count to three, the singing thing came out of nowhere. Also, I blame Star Trek V for the song choice. I hope everyone is having a good week!


End file.
